Gaming establishments having slot machines, video poker machines and other gaming devices desire a balanced mix of machines. With slot machines, for example, gaming device manufacturers likely desire to maintain a certain percentage of the conventional mechanical reel slot machines as well newer video slot machines.
Gaming establishments also desire the games to enable any player having any wagering limit to play. Many gaming establishments provide $1, $2 or $5 minimum bet black jack tables. Players can of course bet more. Gaming machines, such as slot machines, likewise provide nickel, quarter, dollar and multi-dollar minimums, such as $5, $25, $100 and $500 machines.
Many gaming machines require at least one dollar to play. Dollar machines are advantageous to gaming establishments because the establishments can use redeemable tokens instead of actual currency. Token systems are not practical for nickel or quarter machines mainly due to the volume of tokens that would have to be maintained, the different tokens that would have to be handled and the lessened benefit of removing a machine load of nickels from the establishment floor as opposed to a load of dollars.
Nickel and other fractional dollar machines that have multiple paylines enabling multiple wagers per payline have enjoyed success. The machines enable players to bet amounts on the order of a dollar but spread the bet out over two or more paylines. For instance, a player can bet two credits on all nine paylines of a nickel machine for under a dollar. Multi-line dollar machines which enable players to play multiple paylines are also known. For example, slot games exist that require the player to wager, e.g., nine credits or nine dollars whereby the game activates all, e.g., nine paylines. A need therefore exists to have a dollar or multi-dollar minimum machine, capable of accepting tokens, which enables a player to spread the minimum wager over a plurality of paylines.